Category Archives: Thriller

Comedy, Coming Soon, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Film, Independent Film, Narrative, New Release, Preview, Sci-Fi, Thriller, War, Western

2012 Fall Film Guide

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(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)

September 5, 2012

Labor Day has passed, and now it’s time to consider this year’s crop of what will inevitably be considered some of Oscar’s biggest fodder. It’s no surprise that when it comes to the Academy Awards, the movies that are most likely to be honored with a nomination are those that are released towards the end of the year. Some of this year’s frontrunners appear to be Argo, Django Unchained, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Hyde Park on Hudson, Life of Pi, Lincoln, The Master, Les Misérables, Silver Linings Playbook, Wreck-It Ralph, and Zero Dark Thirty. Of course, there’s plenty of other flicks to look forward to, spanning all genres and audience interests.

Note: All non-authored pieces’ loglines are courtesy of IMDb.com.

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Classic Film, Drama, Film Noir, Narrative, On My DVR, Thriller

On My DVR: The Maltese Falcon (1941)

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Synopsis (courtesy of IMDb):
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

This film is on my 170 list, and I did watch it some years ago, but even then I told myself I’d have to re-watch it someday. I must not have been in the proper mindset the first time because I recall not following the story very well. Any film with the notoriety of The Maltese Falcon and with names like John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Peter Lorre attached deserves a second watch. This film came out the same year as Citizen Kane and is the iconic Huston’s directorial debut. It earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Huston), and Best Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet).

Director: John Huston
Screenwriter: John Huston
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Gladys George, Sydney Greenstreet
Genres: Crime, Noir
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Runtime: 100 min.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRSCV2qc2IY]
Coming Soon, Horror, Narrative, Preview, Thriller, Trailer

Official Trailer: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

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Official Logline:

President Lincoln’s mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34x6m-ahGIo]
Coming Soon, Narrative, New Release, Preview, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Coming Soon: In Time

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Set in the future, people don’t age past 25. Individuals must work to earn more time, and precious minutes are currency for everyday items. When one man finds himself with ample time on his hands, he must run from the corrupt police to save his life.

As a self-professed film snob, this is not the sort of film I’d normally find myself watching, as it has two strong marks against it: Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. Still, I admit that the story interests me in the same way that Children of Men (2006) did, though it doesn’t appear that In Time is nearly as good. If it were, it wouldn’t star Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. But anyway.

The movie is directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show), whose next film is the highly anticipated The Host, starring Saoirse Ronan and based on the popular book by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.

Director: Andrew Niccol

Screenwriter: Andrew Niccol

Producers: Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, Andrew Niccol

Cast: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Johnny Galecki

Genres: Sci-fi, Thriller

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Official Site: intimemovie.com

Release Date: 10.28.11

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw]
Coming Soon, Drama, Filmmakers, Preview, Sci-Fi, Thriller, War

Tarsem: Past, Present, Future

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There’s plenty that India has given us that is worthy of our utmost appreciation: the Taj Mahal, curry chicken, Bollywood. Nope. Scratch that. I could live without Bollywood. But I couldn’t live without filmmaker Tarsem Singh (or just Tarsem). That’s not true, either. I could live without him, but then the world of cinematic wonders that I so greatly enjoy would be without the color and imagination that Tarsem so expertly infuses into it.

He’s only released two films to date with a third release coming up in November and another currently in production, but even before his films, Tarsem has been a success in the world of music videos and advertising. His first major work was the award-winning video for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” From there, he went on to direct some of advertising’s most recognized and awarded TV spots for clients like Levi’s, Nike, Pepsi, Reebok, Coca-Cola, and others.

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Drama, Narrative, Thriller

9/11 in the Movies

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Ten years later, I’m surprised at the lack of narrative feature films that have depicted the events of 9/11. A couple that immediately come to mind are 2006’s United 93 and World Trade Center. (Of course, the 2004 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 deserves mention here, despite not being a narrative.) Sure, there have been some others in which 9/11 served as a backdrop or back story, but very few in which the attacks, themselves, are dramatized for the big screen. Perhaps some feel it’s still too soon or it would be wrong to profit from the tragic events—though that’s never really deterred filmmakers with a story to tell in the past.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHdqw6scuIc]

UNITED 93

IMDb Summary: A real-time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.

Director: Paul Greengrass

Screenwriter: Paul Greengrass

Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Greengrass, Lloyd Levin

Cast: JJ Johnson, Gary Commock, David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colón-Zayas

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Runtime: 111 min.

Rating: R, for language and some intense sequences of terror and violence

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoVTupwbQ-s]

WORLD TRADE CENTER

IMDb Summary: Two Port Authority police officers become trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Director: Oliver Stone

Screenwriter: Andrea Berloff

Producers: Moritz Borman, Debra Hill, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jay Hernandez, Michael Shannon

Genre: Drama

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Runtime: 129 min.

Rating: PG-13, for intense and emotional content, some disturbing images, and language

Drama, Independent Film, Narrative, New Release, News, Preview, Thriller

Kevin Smith’s RED STATE Set for “One Night Only” Event

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Note: Melissa Leo won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, not Best Actress.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ1v6oFHefc]

HOLLYWOOD, CA, September 2, 2011—On the heels of its chart-topping, Academy-qualifying run at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema, SModcast Pictures announced today the next phase of its unprecedented release strategy for Kevin Smith’s controversial thriller Red State.

On Sunday, September 25, Red State will screen at select theatres nationwide through a unique partnership with the Emerging Pictures theatre network, announced David Dinerstein, whose D Squared Films is overseeing the films distribution for SModcast. “Red State will be made available as a ‘One Night Only’ event, which mirrors the format of SModcast’s record-breaking Red State USA Tour from earlier this year. For this screening event, Smith’s trademark post show Q&A will be digitally streamed live from Tarantino’s New Beverly into all of the participating theatres, allowing audience members to interact directly with Smith utilizing Twitter. Smith will be joined on stage by a special guest who will moderate the Q&A,” said Dinerstein.

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